At a Glance:
Arsenal spent £250 million on eight new players last summer.
The likes of Martin Zubimendi, Viktor Gyokeres and Eberechi Eze arrived for big fees.
Here are all eight signings ranked based on their first seasons in North London.
Arsenal enjoyed an outstanding 2025/26 season, winning the Premier League title and finishing as runners-up in the Champions League, and this was in large part due to the squad depth Andrea Berta acquired for Mikel Arteta last summer.
After enduring an injury-plagued 2024/25 campaign, Arteta and Berta collectively decided to take a slightly different approach to the transfer market. The pair signed eight players for around £250 million, ensuring injuries couldn’t derail another season.
This approach worked wonders. Despite having to cope with another long list of injuries, the Gunners were competing on four fronts until they lost the Carabao Cup final in mid-March, and ultimately ended the year as Premier League Champions.
The additions added another layer of high-quality players to Arteta’s squad, who the Spaniard could generally rely upon. While arguably none of the eight signings enjoyed spectacular seasons from an individual perspective, every single one of them helped push the Gunners to the promised land.
With that said, here are all eight of Arsenal’s summer 2025 signings ranked from worst to best, with the acknowledgment that all were at least somewhat helpful in the Gunners’ pursuit of silverware.
North London takeover ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/uqt0EYcXIY
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) May 31, 2026
8 – Christian Norgaard
What makes the signing of Christian Norgaard disappointing isn’t the player’s performance itself, but the opportunity cost of the deal. The Dane played about as much as you’d expect for a 32-year-old arriving for £13 million.
When he did get on the pitch, he was more than adequate, while by all accords he had an incredibly positive impact on the dressing room. Ultimately, he didn’t cost a fortune and was a good figure to have in a team that needed an experienced veteran to help lead them to glory.
However, Arsenal could have signed someone else who Arteta trusted to take important minutes off those ahead of him who were flagging. The tactician showed a reluctance to ever use Norgaard in any pivotal moments in the season, despite the likes of Martin Zubimendi and Declan Rice regularly showing visible signs of exhaustion.
Had a player like Lucien Agoume, a talented young midfielder who was heavily linked with Arsenal, arrived instead of Norgaard, perhaps Zubimendi’s performance levels, and the team’s as a whole, wouldn’t have dropped off so significantly during the months of March and April.
7 – Kepa Arrizabalaga
There’s only so much you can critique a back-up goalkeeper signing. It’s difficult to land a number two who isn’t either right at the start of their career or right at the latter end. Arsenal managed to do so, and the result was a competent shot-stopper who simply isn’t anywhere near the quality of their first choice.
Kepa Arrizabalaga was good enough for Arsenal to progress through the cups and play in all the unimportant matches. Ultimately, his season will be remembered for his howler in the Carabao Cup final, which opened the game up at Wembley and probably cost Arsenal the trophy that day.
However, Kepa is about as good a second choice keeper you can realistically get your hands on, and if he stays, he’ll be more than capable of fulfilling a similar role again next season. Arteta might just think twice about playing him in a cup final if Arsenal are to get to one again next term.
6 – Noni Madueke
For two-thirds of this season, Noni Madueke was quite good. Signed entirely to offer Bukayo Saka some respite and to stand in for the Gunners’ talisman when he was injured, Madueke fulfilled this role diligently.
While his end product was frustrating, he was a constant threat and consistently stood out with his directness. By mid-March, Arsenal fans were generally satisfied with this £52 million investment.
However, Madueke’s form fell off a cliff in the last two months. He lost composure and confidence, and some reports suggested he was playing through injury following the international break.
This poor end to the campaign has marred the perception of his season, and understandably so. With Saka waning and constantly out injured, Madueke didn’t quite step up when it mattered most.
5 – Eberechi Eze
Eberechi Eze popped up with some important goals throughout the season, and these strikes alone arguably justify the hefty price Arsenal paid for the England international’s services. However, the consistency of his performances arguably weren’t quite good enough for a £68 million signing.
The attacking midfielder struggled to adapt to the intensity of Arteta’s system early on, and he found himself completely ousted from the team during the Christmas period. Injuries to Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz did see him have a re-emergence in the second half of the campaign, and his performances certainly improved.
His Champions League final penalty miss puts a real dampener on his overall campaign, and he’ll definitely need to deliver much more next season to keep his spot in Arteta’s squad beyond 2027.
4 – Cristhian Mosquera
Based on value for money, Cristhian Mosquera was arguably one of the best signings across the league this season. The Spanish defender arrived from Valencia for just £13 million, and for this fee, it’d have been reasonable if he’d played a similar role to Norgaard.
However, the 21-year-old accumulated over 2,000 minutes, playing important roles in key games, standing in for the likes of William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes and Jurrien Timber in two different positions. While he has some unpolished areas of his game, his general performance level was excellent.
Ultimately, the only thing that is holding Mosquera back from being higher on this list is that the three above him had a much larger impact on the team, even if they were expected to play a bigger role.
3 – Martin Zubimendi
Like Madueke, Martin Zubimendi enjoyed a largely positive campaign until the final few months when his form tailed off. The midfielder played more minutes than any outfield player in Arsenal’s squad across all competitions, barring Declan Rice.
This excessive amount of time spent on the pitch was clearly a huge part of his late season collapse. By the time February rolled around, Zubimendi was exhausted, and he continued to be played into the ground until the last few weeks of the season, when Myles Lewis-Skelly was introduced as a midfielder.
However, it cannot be forgotten how influential the Euro 2024 winner was for Arsenal in the first half of the campaign. Not only was he generally efficient in possession and outstanding at recovering the ball, but he also developed a knack for breaking into the box with well timed runs.
Moving forward, he should be considered more of a squad player, rather than a single point of failure in Arsenal’s midfield.
2 – Viktor Gyokeres
There is a lot you can criticise about Viktor Gyokeres and his signing. He’s technically poor in close quarters, he doesn’t particularly suit Arsenal’s style, he was relatively expensive, he’s already in his prime and he simply wasn’t that good for large periods of the campaign, arguably holding Arteta’s team back in the process.
However, he was available and he played a huge amount of minutes, while Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz spent the majority of the campaign on the sidelines. He also scored 21 goals which, while broken down and categorised into non-penalty and different competitions is less impressive than it looks on face value, is still unquestionably valuable.
Gyokeres also stepped up in some big moments, producing excellent performances in both legs of the Champions League semi-final tie against Atletico Madrid, as well as away at Tottenham in February. This was far from a perfect season, and he was far from a perfect signing, but his contributions to this title victory will never be forgotten.
1 – Piero Hincapie
As recently as mid-January, Piero Hincapie might have ranked towards the bottom of this list. He’d started to play in Riccardo Calafiori’s injury absence, and hadn’t really impressed with his performances. Fans weren’t convinced Arsenal should trigger the purchase option included in the loan deal.
Fast forward four months, and Hincapie was one of just two of last summer’s signings to start the Champions League final – the other being Mosquera out of neccessity.
This shows how far the Ecuadorian has come in the space of a few months. Now, he and Calafiori look to be the perfect set of left-back options to move forward with, given their balance of attributes.
Hincapie has a defined role in the squad, and can be viewed as an overwhelming success. Every other signing arguably has some question marks around their role in the team next season, with several potentially on their way out in the next year or so, or are resigned to sporadic roles for the rest of the time at Arsenal.